A passenger plane crashed in South Korea killing at least 85 people. The plane skidded off the runway and slammed into a concrete fence after its landing gear failed to deploy. Rescue workers are searching for survivors and investigating the cause of the crash.
A passenger plane burst into flames Sunday after it skidded off a runway at a South Korea n airport and slammed into a concrete fence when its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy, killing at least 85 people, officials said, in one of the country's worst aviation disasters. The National Fire Agency said rescuers raced to pull people from the Jeju Air passenger plane carrying 181 people at the airport in the town of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul.
The transport ministry said the incident happened at 9:03 a.m. local time. At least 85 people — 46 women and 39 men — died in the fire, the agency said. Emergency workers pulled out two people, both crew members, and local health officials said they remain conscious. It said it deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire. Footage of the crash aired by YTN television showed the Jeju Air plane skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the facility. Other local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the plane engulfed with flame. Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, told a televised briefing that rescue workers are continuing to search for bodies scattered by the crash impact. The plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail assembly remaining recognizable among the wreckage, he said. Lee said workers were looking into various possibilities about what caused the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds that caused mechanical problems. Senior Transport ministry official Joo Jong-wan separately told reporters that government investigators arrived at the site to investigate the cause of the crash and fire. Emergency officials in Muan said the plane’s landing gear appeared to have malfunctione
AVIATION DISASTER PLANE CRASH SOUTH KOREA DEATHS INVESTIGATION
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